Type your name or something into Spell with Flickr and it will create an image ‘word’ using pictures from Flickr. Above we have my name. Marvellous.

There have long been concerns that anti-depressent Seroxat has dangerous side effects, especially since a BBC Panorama documentary on it in 2002, but now researchers in Norway have found that users of the drug are seven times more likely to commit suicide that those who are not on it.

The manufacturers, GlaxoSmithKline, said that it’s “own extensive research showed that the benefits of using the medication outweighed the risks.” Great.

“Man, I sure feel happier. That Seroxat worked a treat. Wait, what’s that bright light?”

(via Sky News)

It’s been revealed that exam board Edexcel used their administative and secretarial staff to mark GCSE papers. GCSE results come out this Thursday, and the board said they were forced to bring in the extra staff because of the pressure to get the papers marked in time.

They’re at the same time every year, Edexcel. Did it come as a surprise to you? Did the long summer draw out, and suddenly it was ‘that time of year again’?

Seeing as that is kind of the only requirement of their jobs, it would seem a little short-sighted that they didn’t think last month “Perhaps we should get a few more professionals in to mark those papers”.

Having said that, maybe they’ll be marked more fairly this year.

(via Sky News)

If I followed my own advice, then I’d be a lot more interesting than I am, but hey, what’s wrong with hypocrites? Here’s some tips for beginner bloggers so you can always find something to write about.

Get an RSS reader

Even if you have Firefox, with it’s ‘live bookmarking’, you sometimes need a lot more than 10-15 RSS feeds being monitored, plus Firefox has no update alert capability, to inform you when something’s new.

Some good RSS readers are:

NewzCrawler (free 14-day trial, $24.95 to buy)
FeedDemon (free 14-day trial, $24.95 to buy)
SharpReader (free)
RSS Reader (free)

There are also online versions, which keep your feed preferences remotely and allow you to visit the website (from anywhere, of course, which is a bonus) to check for news whenever you want. These include:

Bloglines
Feedster
NewsIsFree

Subscribe to great feeds

Of course, having a good newsreader is only half the job. You then need RSS feeds which are really going to interest you. Of course, yours will be different to mine, but one of my personal favourites is Boing Boing, which really lives up to it’s “a directory of wonderful things” tagline. Lifehacker also deserves a mention. Try searching on feed search engines like Feedster.

Keep track of links sites

Websites that track the current climate of the web are very useful. Sites such as Del.icio.us, while letting you keep track of your own web bookmarks, also let you view popular links from others. Their own Popular page, along with services such as Oishii, come with their own RSS feeds, allowing you to keep track of popular pages people are bookmarking right now.

Often new services, news and interesting blog posts will be bookmarked by hundreds of people, keeping you up to date with what other people are interested in. This is obviously very important to keeping your blog posts time-relevent and interesting.

That’s all I can think of right now, but if anyone has any more tips, do comment on this article and I’ll add them.

R Todd King is currently blogging about his experiences at the sixth annual Ice & Snow World event in Harbin, China. Some of the pictures he has been taking are quite incredible, and I urge you to take a look if you have a free moment.

Ice & Snow World 2005 [via BoingBoing]